Diabetes with a smile–

gratitude

Yep, the Fourth of Julyis tomorrow! I’m grateful for the liberties we enjoy in the USA — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We’re incredibly fortunate. The Founding Fathers certainly knew what they were doing, that’s for sure.

How do we celebrate the 4th? We raise the FLAG, think PATRIOTISM, and fire up the GRILL!

This can be a great holiday for T2D’s. Grilled foods are in abundance. The choices will be extensive. If you’re hosting a BBQ, you can make sure that the healthy choices are on your table. Google healthy salads — you’ll find some recipes you didn’t expect. Be sure to have a colorful bowl of fruit on hand. Then, you’re all set!

If you’re going to someone else’s feast, don’t go empty-handed. To keep yourself (and your blood glucose level) “safe,” arrive with one of those salads you googled and some fruit (just to be sure).

CAUTION: It’s not the fruits and vegetables that will “get” you. It’s the dressings. So use your trusty computer to find some fat free/sugar free choices.

I LOVE Thanksgiving! What could be bad? Spending time with those you love, food, gratitude — no gifts. It’s all good. The laughter is priceless.

Upon reflection, in terms of T2D, it was a very good day. Cooking the meal keeps me away from the h’ors d’oeuvres. It works every time. I can be in and out of the kitchen and still participate in the conversation without stuffing my face.

A turkey dinner with all the fixings is still my fave. NO Presidential Pardon for this bird! I had some of everything, but I didn’t overdo it. (Yea me!) “All things in moderation,” a quote from my late dad. Choosing not having the usual array of sugar-filled desserts, this year we enjoyed a beautiful bowl of colorful, fresh fruit, thanks to my cousin, and a small, but luscious cake to celebrate my daughter’s birthday. Most importantly, everything was served up with a heaping portion of gratitude. After all it’s called THANKSgiving for a reason.

I’m thrilled to report that, for the first time EVER, I didn’t have my late-night (11 o’clock) sandwich. That’s usually a bonus — white bread (yes, you heard me right) with a little butter, turkey, cranberry sauce, and stuffing piled high! –my mouth’s watering, just thinking about it–but, I really wasn’t hungry, so I passed on it. I’m hoping to make this a new tradition. Normally, I have another turkey sandwich for breakfast the next morning 🙂 I can’t believe it; I passed on that too! It wasn’t a conscious decision, I just skipped it and had a normal breakfast. What’s going on???

Thanks to my daughter for not only taking home leftovers, but MOST importantly — the CAKE! It wasn’t calling my name quite yet, but we all know it would have been SCREAMING — “I’m over here!!!” — eventually. She gave it to some men who work in her building. I’m sure they were happy to have it, but not as happy as I was to get it OUT of my house. 🙂

My point? All in all Thanksgiving 2016 was a delight. Looking forward to next year’s Turkey Day! But alas, there are more holidays still to come. This is when I turn into Scrooge — my plan is to change that attitude this year.

The holidays have always presented a problem for me. Lots of reasons, but generically speaking, it’s the greed — you see and hear it everywhere. The television is a primary source of envy for kids — “Mom, look. Tommy has that!” It’s a killer for people who have young children. The whole money thing is another issue. It saddens me to watch people pouring money onto their credit cards to make their children “happy.” You want to make them happy? TAKE them somewhere. DO something WITH them — make memories. The laughter on those bonding days will stay with them forever. O.K., that’s MY feeling on the topic. Scrooge? Maybe, maybe not.

Happy Thanksgiving, dear Readers — enjoy the holidays — one day at a time.

I will NEVER give up! Diabetes is a royal pain in the ass, but I will NEVER give up!

It’s about ten minutes since my last post and I’m on my way to bed. I’m wiped out. If you read my last post, you’ll see why I have some nerve being tired.

Today is Sunday. It’s another day. It’s going to be a great day and I will, for sure, start off with a really GOOD ATTITUDE. My plan is to start out with an attitude of gratitude and move on from there!

Blah, blah, blah. The attitude of gratitude. Blah, blah, blah. Today, I didn’t want to hear about it, didn’t want to know about it, didn’t even want to think about it.

Today was one of those B A D A T T I T U D E days. Why? I have NO clue. Sometimes you just want to pull up the covers and forget about it. This was one of those days. So, what did I do to change my attitude? I went to get my hair colored (good move!) and came home hating the way my hair looked (bad move!).

I have a friend who’s a DIYer, as am I. She’s working on a credenza; I’m 1/2-way through refinishing a table. Looking for motivation to finish mine, I decided to stop at her house to see how she’s progressing (good move!) She had painted just one of the drawers, as a test case, to be sure she liked the finish, before continuing. It was gorgeous! Light gray base coat with a darker silver distress. Just beautiful. Did it motivate me? Absolutely. (Yea!!!)

On the ride home, I thought about my project. I’ll work on it this afternoon, I told myself. When I pulled into the gas station to fill up, I remembered why that wasn’t going to happen. As I got out of the car, a stabbing pain shot down the right side of my butt and leg and reminded me that today was NOT going to be the day I’d be working on the table. [Last Wednesday I went out to my garage to grab the paint supplies to complete my table. As I leaned over to lift the carton, I coughed REALLY hard, and ZAP — sciatica crept back into my life. If you’ve ever had it you know — it smarts! I left the carton right where it was, grabbed an ice pack and a heating pad, and spent the next two days trying to get the inflammation down. SCIATICA SUCKS — I’m gonna get a bumper sticker.] I shouldn’t complain; four days is nothing and it’s MUCH better. But, I didn’t remember that, when I went into the gas station and bought a package of Twinkies (bad move! — really bad move).

Continuing my brief drive home, I told myself, In the meantime, I’ll work on Carrie’s quilt. I can do that. Carrie is friend of my daughter’s who’s having a baby and the shower is the day after Thanksgiving. HOLY PROCRASTINATION! Hurry up, Kathy! I wasn’t going to give her the quilt until the baby is born but, if I do it NOW that’ll be many hours of keeping my hands busy and not thinking about cravings. (Back to my Grapefruit Oil) 🙂

Well, when I got home, after I downed the Twinkies, I set up the table to lay out the quilt, got out the fabric and started. NO! Of course I didn’t start!!!I told you I had a lousy attitude. Instead, I grabbed my laptop and wasted about two hours watching YouTube videos on “How to Make a Rag Quilt.” It was very relaxing to watch someone else do the work. I know how to make that style quilt — I’ve done it four times!

strip, rag quilt

WHY then, was I wasting the time??? Probably because my miserable attitude told me to AND probably because of the sugar rush to my brain from the freakin’ Twinkies. Ugh.

It’s 11:51 p.m., so nine more minutes until Sunday. My GOAL for Sunday?

REALLY early this morning, around 1:30 I think, I questioned just how “dedicated” I am to blogging. I mentioned how Bill at “Simple Living Over Fifty” inserts his blood sugar and weight at the end of each post. I was hesitant, thinking of it as a confession of sorts. Nonetheless, I committed to doing it. I expect two things will happen — it will force me to blog daily (or a minimum of 3-4 times a week) and doing this will help to keep me accountable, to myself if no one else.

As promised, I took my blood sugar first thing this morning, made my breakfast and before eating it, (of course!), I hopped on the scale. Quickly, I booted up my laptop and typed into today’s post my blood sugar and weight right away. Pushing my laptop aside, I ate my epicurean delight (using the term loosely), and will finish the blog later on.

This is “later on.”

I’ve been reading a great deal about diabetes lately, Type 2 in particular — books, articles, blogs. My thinking is to immerse myself to the degree that it will all become second nature, again! It was, for many years, but for some reason I’ve been having difficulty. I’m reviewing information that I know, as reinforcement, and filing away what I’m learning, so that it’s there when I need it. This Type 2 diabetic is convinced that this is a good practice. Diabetes certainly is the epitome of life-long learning, and I’m all about that in every area of my life! 🙂

So, as the author of Diary of a Dedicated Diabetic, I’ll be blogging my brains out, learning from others, and letting you know anything new that I learn, along with the “old” pearls of wisdom that help to keep me on track. I’m determined and dedicated!

So that’s the question that I’ve been asking myself. AM I a dedicated diabetic or not? Make up your mind Kathy! Either do it or don’t — damn it!

Obviously, I haven’t been too dedicated lately. Oh, I don’t mean to my diabetes — that’s been going along pretty well. I’m talking about my blogging. You see, the reason I started this blog in the first place was to keep me on track in terms of my diabetes (and hopefully impart some words of wisdom on the topic). I thought that if I blogged each day — or at least three or four times a week — I’d stay more focused. Obviously, I haven’t been too successful/committed/dedicated lately. But that’s about to change.

Thanks to Bill at “Simple Living Over 50,” a wonderful blog on WordPress, I’m back on track! As of this morning, probably around 7 a.m. (it’s 1:15 a.m. now), along with my post, I’ll be listing my blood sugar number and my weight! Yep, I think it’s a great idea (Thanks, Bill!), and I’m stealing it. I’ll post both at the end of…well, at the end of whatever comes out of my brain.

Posting my blood sugar, along with my weight, will keep me honest — just another form of accountability, I guess.

Sorry about my lack of pictures, folks. Planning on getting to Apple to cure this dilemma. Somehow, I just haven’t gotten there; life gets in the way. No excuses!!!

NOTHING frustrates me more than when all does NOT go well with my “toys” (laptop, iPad, iPhone). Ah, yet another addiction. For some reason, nothing is syncing. Therefore, I can’t post pictures on my blog, at this time (using some “old” ones — sorry); I’m unable to write and send my work out — e-mail issue (I’ve been doing battle with aol about that). Why do the companies blame each other? I’m determined that by the weekend, my toys will be back on track!

Okay, my title is “It can be COMPLICATED,” and of course you know that diabetes is complicated — whether it be Type 1 or 2. I’m Type 2, so that’s what I’ll be discussing, and I’ll be surprised if you can’t relate. {By the way, I realize that we all DO really know the answers to my questions and reasons for my frustration; somehow, it’s still FRUSTRATING.}

This is not a discussion about the medical complications resulting from diabetes — I’m not there and grateful for it. This is simply a discussion about how complicated and frustrating the management of it can be…and what we can DO about that.

The ups and downs of blood glucose ARE complicated — at least to this Dedicated Diabetic, as proven by many posts to this blog (Diary). Sometimes it’s simple, I write everything down, walk — my blood sugar goes down = Perfecto! Other times, I end up in the hospital, for something completely unrelated, I walk the halls like a maniac in an attempt to keep my numbers down. Result = They go up anyway. Never fails.

It just is the way it is. It’s a puzzle — even though I’ve read the books, met with the doctors, attended the seminars, blah, blah, blah. Is this reaction a lack of acceptance? I wonder? I find it hard to believe, but I’ll be delving into that further in the next few days.

As far as what to “do” about it. I’m just going to keep on keeping on, examining advice from others in this boat, and doing the right things to manage this crazy thing called diabetes. I AM and will continue to be DEDICATED, determined.

Hey Kathy, I scream out at the top of my lungs — SHUT UP AND BEGRATEFUL!